Newmark's Door

A new season of Entourage . . .

. . . starts tonight on HBO. It's usually good and my wife and I have liked it.

But it is easy to mock. Two funny examples:

"Every Week on Entourage".

"Entourage Season 6 in a Stupid, Boring, Lukewarm Nutshell".

Ayn Rand and Charlie's Angels

When Farrah Fawcett passed away, a couple of stories noted that Ayn Rand was a big fan of Charlie's Angels. I'm far from an expert on Ms. Rand's views, but I was surprised by that. One of the stories linked to a piece, "The Dialectical Meaning of 'Charlie's Angels'" that was supposed to explain it.

Money 'graph:

Still, while the Romantic factor cannot be overlooked, there were certain methodological and cultural forces at work in addition that surely affected Rand on a tacit level, and which inexorably led her to champion this show. These subconsciously-absorbed forces help to explain why Rand had such a deep affinity for the Angels. That affinity was due, fundamentally, to the show's deeply feminist, sado-masochistic, and dialectical subtexts, as most profoundly evidenced in the full-bodied triadic duality of the angelic bosoms.

I'm pretty sure this is not a goof or a satire.

Steven King thinks the future of TV . . .

. . .is more narrowcasting. He proposes four "channels coming to a cable or sat package near you".

I agree with him: I think Tontine TV would be a huge hit. :-)

"Homes of the Rich and Famous"

One of life's little mysteries: among the large--and seemingly growing--number of people who are furious at "the rich", there seems, to me, to be little resentment of leading entertainers.

I could conjecture about the reasons why, but instead I'm going to link to some purported pictures of entertainers' homes.

(If you're in the market for a big house, now might well be a good time to buy. A new, 27,000 square-foot home on two acres in Beverly Hills, originally listed for $45 million, just sold for a mere $31.5.)

"Stars: The Ugly Duckling Years"

These folks "cleaned up good".

What if Star Trek had been made as an '80s teen comedy?

Funny answer here.

Also funny: "Instruction Manuals for the USS Enterprise".

"15 Best 'Family Guy' Celebrity Cameos"

The Mathew McConaughey one is FG at its best.

(Though, c'mon, A Time to Kill was O.K.)

"Hulu's tug of war with TV"

Interesting article on the maneuvering at the Internet/televison border (LA Times, 5/12).

"Peggy Sue," Buddy Holly and the Crickets, live, 12/29/57

Complete with an introduction by Kathryn Murray in which she says "rock and roll" with the same tone that somebody today might say "septic tank backup".

"The Global Village"

It seems like only yesterday any number of smart people were opining on how fragmented our society was becoming. What with a zillion pages on the Net, and hundreds of cable channels, and hours upon hours of video games . . . we were losing, it was claimed, the profoundly-felt common experiences the Baby Boomers had had, experiences from the high--Neil Armstrong, the US hockey team, the fall of the Wall--to the low--JFK and MLK and Bobby gunned down, the massacre of the Israeli athletes in Munich: "They're all gone"--and the in-between--"Heeeeere's Johnny!" "Capt'n, the engines canna' take any more!"--shared, in front of their TVs. by millions of Americans.

Well, as Roseanne Roseannadanna might have said, "Never mind!"

(Take that, Mr. Richard Feder of Fort Lee, NJ.)